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OPINION

Editorial: Retiring ‘Rebel’ the right move

Free Press Editorial Board
Published 5:32 a.m. ET Feb. 12, 2017

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The School Board in South Burlington decided the Rebel name was dividing the school when it should have united it. They voted unanimously to retired the name, to be phased out beginning in August 2017.
NICOLE HIGGINS DeSMET/FREE PRESS

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From left, South Burlington High School Student Diversity Union members Lauren Wickens, Sadie Jones and Sabrina Choudhary hold copies of yearbook pages from the 1960s showing the Confederate flag being flown at the school and displayed in hallways and the gymnasium on Feb. 1, 2017.(Photo11: RYAN MERCER/FREE PRESS)Buy Photo

The board made a definitive move to reject the district’s old ties to symbols of the Confederacy embraced by the high school in the 1960s as part of its identity.

The School Board voted unanimously on Feb. 1 to phase out the nickname starting in August. South Burlington Schools Superintendent David Young said the next step is to engage students to work on how the change will take place.

Credit goes to community members and student leaders, including Isaiah Hines, a student member of the School Board, who refused to let the issue die.

The word rebel has multiple meanings, many of them with positive connotations in our society that values independence, individualism and uniqueness. Yet the name, as it was adopted by South Burlington schools, is undeniably linked to a group of states that fought to secede from the Union to preserve institutions that included slavery.

It might have started as an innocent – if unthinking – play on the “south” in South Burlington, but the school and student body for a time embraced Confederate imagery. Photos in yearbooks from the 1960s show prominent use of symbols such as the South’s battle flag by sports teams and cheerleaders.

The community has been grappling with the Rebel controversy since the summer of 2015, when a resident asked whether the name was offensive and should be replaced. The question came in the wake of the mass shooting in a Charleston, South Carolina, church by a man who professed white supremacist sympathies.

People who argue vigorously against the existence of prejudice and discrimination often are those who never imagine they will suffer those injustices.

As the Confederate battle flag increasingly is embraced by groups promoting racism and other forms of hate, South Burlington’s past use of the banner taints the Rebel name.

The schools are no place for symbols of discrimination based on, race, ethnicity, gender, religion or sexual identity. South Burlington now has the opportunity to move forward with a more inclusive identity that builds on the best of the Rebel spirit while shedding the nickname’s racist past.

Contact Engagement Editor Aki Soga at asoga@freepressmedia.com. Join the conversation online at BurlingtonFreePress.com or send a letter to the editor to letters@freepressmedia.com.